


Lessons

by Picturemedrowning



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types
Genre: Angry Sex, Blood, Bloody Kisses, Knifeplay, M/M, Rough Sex, Under-negotiated Kink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:00:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26223040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Picturemedrowning/pseuds/Picturemedrowning
Summary: Alexios gets a message from someone he's worked very hard to forget.
Relationships: Alexios/Thaletas (Assassin's Creed)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 65





	Lessons

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [No Promises](https://archiveofourown.org/works/22079362) by [thedevilchicken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/pseuds/thedevilchicken). 



> Well, shit. It's been a while.   
> This is my first time writing for this fandom, I'm very rusty and obviously no proofing has gone on here so please be gentle with me.  
> Inspired by the amazing fic linked (its fucking great, please read), and because I just finished AC Odyssey (very late to this party, I know) and I have a lot of feelings and shit I need to work through. This game has broken me.

_Spartan scouts told of a mercenary with an eagle arriving in Makedonia._

_Meet me at the shrine west of the crossroads at midnight. You know the place._

_Bring your spear._

_T_

Alexios wiped his palms on his tunic because his hands were shaking and he was suddenly thoroughly agitated. He knew the writing as soon as he opened the Spartan-sealed scroll and supposed that yes, the time might come eventually, but there was a reason he hadn’t set foot in Mykonos for years - and it _had_ been years - and for that reason to catch up with him here was almost too much bad luck to believe.

He waited until dark and saddled Phobos, trotted through the city and out past the gates with his heart thumping somewhere near his throat and a cold weight in his stomach. The night was mild and quiet, Ikaros soared overhead looking for mice. Alexios wasn’t fond of Makedonia, hated it even, how open and exposed the land was, and the murky, foggy wetlands that swarmed with animals always trying to gut him with their teeth and tusks. The air seemed to taste of ash. He longed for a proper city, a place with beautiful beaches and beautiful people and at least a hint of civilisation. Here the forests were thick with mercenaries and bears and he swore he once saw a group of Persians riding through the trees at dusk - maybe he was getting old, or maybe it was the proximity to the Bay of Xerxes and something in his ancestry was fighting to keep him away, but the entire place set him on edge.

The clearing was not as wide as he remembered, and the shrine was overgrown, almost forgotten. Dead leaves and pine needles covered the ground with their smoky, earthen scents. Owls and wolves called in the distance, a lonely sound, a long way off. As Alexios lit a torch and shoved it into a bracket next to the weather-beaten statue, he heard footsteps in the trees behind him and stilled.

‘I never could sneak up on you.’

The voice made Alexios’ insides clench, old love and old pain fighting for space in his chest at once.

Thaletas hadn’t changed much. His armor would have been grander Alexios was certain, had he been wearing it, but for a soldier the years had been good to him. He looked strong and somewhat unharmed by the traumas of war.

‘You never were good at being quiet.’ Alexios replied, mouth dry. ‘Brave of you to venture into the forest without your armor.’

‘I thought I’d be in safe hands.’ Thaletas placed his shield neatly on the ground at his feet and Alexios had no idea what he was supposed to say to that. ‘So. How goes it Eagle Bearer?’

Alexios didn’t know what to say to that either, so he shrugged. ‘…Busy. And you?'

‘Ah, you know. Things to do, Athenians to kill. It’s been a long time, friend.’

‘It has.’ Alexios agreed. ‘How is Kyra?’

‘She’s well, I believe. We stayed together for a while but had to go our separate ways in the end.’

 _Stayed together._ The words hit like blows. Thinking of them both ignited something feral in Alexios and it made him want to put his sword through someone.

He knew it of course; he was neither blind nor stupid, and perhaps it made him the villain of this particular story but Alexios’ life was too chaotic to wait for the killing to be over before he could start loving, and he was also not in the business of seducing people who didn’t want to be seduced. It was far more than seduction, and that was why it was so fucking painful. From the moment they first met, blood-drenched on the beach, he knew there was something between them that went far beyond carnal post-battle lust. Thaletas never hid his feelings for Alexios, quite the opposite, he was resolute and honest about them. But with the Adriesta not even over the horizon, and probably with the taste of Alexios still in his mouth, he’d gone to her. To her side, to her bed.

Alexios had shut himself in the ship’s hold and drunk himself stupid, woken up almost two days later at a new port, in which he headed straight for the nearest tavern and found someone he could fuck his anger out with. Rinse, repeat.

‘Do you ever regret what happened?’ Alexios struggled to keep his voice from shaking. He felt the ache of it sinking right through him all over again.

Thaletas felt it too, he could tell. Good. He hoped it hurt.

‘We were at war, Alexios, I couldn’t-’

‘ _Some of us_ ,’ Alexios’ voice rang out across the clearing, louder than he intended. He took a breath and it didn’t help. ‘Some of us are _always_ at war.’

‘I-’

‘That doesn’t make it right to tell someone you love them and then cast them aside when you don’t have use for their sword anymore.’ Alexios spat, venomous, almost surprised at himself. The grip on his spear was hard as iron, his fingers were numb with it. He hadn’t even noticed he had drawn it.

‘That’s not what happened, I asked you to stay.’ Thaletas said quietly, and that took the sting out of Alexios for a moment because it was true, and because Alexios had told him no. But it also made his fists clench and his teeth grit together because nothing was ever that simple, and the words coming out of Thaletas’ mouth had depended on his first loves - on Sparta, and then on Kyra, and whatever they demanded of him. He saw that now, clear as he saw Thaletas standing before him.

Alexios had always come last, he just didn’t know it at the time.

‘I’m not like you. I’m not Spartan, not anymore. And you still asked me to abandon my freedom, the search for my _family_ , for that place. After everything that happened to me.’

Thaletas eyed him quietly while Alexios seethed. ‘You know, you never told me who you really are.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘That _Alexios of Sparta_ is more than just a name for you. That the Wolf, Nikolaos was your father. That you’re descended from King Leonidas. That, and a thousand other things.’

‘I would have told you _everything_.’ Alexios breathed, anger coming right back again like a tide, and it pushed him to take a step forward, shrinking the gap between them. ‘I would have shared my darkest secrets with you. In fact I remember promising exactly that, and it still wasn’t enough.’

Thaletas stared down at his hands, and when he spoke there was something new in his voice. It might have been courage, or fear. There wasn’t much difference, Alexios had come to learn. ‘I heard a rumor about you not so long ago.’

Alexios caught himself flinch a little, _what now_ , but he furrowed his brow and held steady.

‘People say you’re a demigod.’

Thaletas looked up at him, the corners of his eyes a little more wrinkled than Alexios remembered, but his gaze was still sharp, still smart and enquiring and intense as before. Alexios swallowed, considered it could have been worse. ‘There was talk that you slayed the Minotaur in Pephka. That you have done incredible, impossible things.’

‘You know better than to believe everything you hear.’

‘I do, you’re right.’

Alexios nodded, feeling a rising suspicion that they were finally getting around to the reason for this clandestine little gathering. And not a moment too soon, because Alexios was dangerously close to losing his temper. Thaletas continued, ‘Remember the day we trained together? I took you up onto the hill and asked you to fight me, because it was the only way to really know a person.’

Alexios’ fingers clenched down on the spear again, so hard the cord-wrapped haft would leave a print on his skin for hours. ‘Yes, I remember. We fought, and then we fucked.'

Thaletas actually smiled then and Alexios could have hit him, could have walked away and not looked back, could have done any number of things, but instead he just stood there, fighting through memories of the evening sun on his back and dust on his knees, and the sweat on his brow and Thaletas’ fingers tangled in his hair-

‘I wanted to test myself against the great Alexios. And I told you, before we fought, that I didn’t want you to hold anything back with me.’

‘You _Spartans_. You’re all the same.’ Alexios muttered, incredulous. ‘That’s what this is about? Your sore ego, because I bested you in a fight?’

‘No, this is about closure. And honesty. You promised you wouldn’t hold back, do you remember?’

‘Yes, I remember.’

‘But you must have done.'

‘Because if I hadn’t… I would have hurt you.’ Alexios spoke slowly like he was explaining something to a child. ‘People usually have to pay for that privilege.’

Thaletas nodded, accepting, hearing something he’d known all along, as if he had been proved right. ‘So it’s true then?’

‘What’s true?’

‘You’re the son of a god.’

Alexios scoffed a laugh and looked at the sky as if asking for help, stars little white pinpricks in endless darkness above like an audience, watching them. He wasn’t the son of anyone, had no one who he could call _father_ and feel like it fitted, like it was deserved or even remotely true. Just the remembered faces of men who had let him down.

Phobos huffed and shuffled his hoof on the ground as if he could feel the tension mounting in Alexios’ body like a current through the earth.

‘This is ridiculous. And I thought you might want to apologise for being a stubborn idiot and breaking my heart but instead you want to talk about…this.’ Alexios held his arms wide, at a loss for proper words to describe it.

‘I can’t take back what I did. But I can try to set things straight the only way I know how. Give me one more chance.’ Thaletas’ voice wavered but his body was squared up to Alexios, unafraid. And Alexios almost reminded him that he _should_ have been afraid, that Alexios was the absolute last person anyone should be squaring up to, that once he started sometimes he had a hard time stopping, that most people he came into contact with were dead before they hit the ground, that his spear would cut through flesh like warm butter, but instead he rested a hand on Thaletas’ shoulder and squeezed.

‘You had your chance.’

Thaletas shrugged Alexios’ hand away roughly and reached for his spear. ‘I’m serious. Once more, for old time’s sake.’

Alexios shook his head. ‘After all you think you know about me. You still want this?’

‘The things I hear about my old friend...l don’t think I know that person anymore. But I’d like to.’

Resentment was starting to build in Alexios again. On top of reliving the last few hours of their relationship, like digging through old wounds, was an older and more based kind of anger. It was cold and uncaring and lethal and it told Alexios that if Thaletas wanted this then fuck it, he could have it, and he could live with the consequences, or not.

‘So pick up your shield.’ He ordered. ‘And you might come to know me again, if you make it.’

Thaletas brought his shield up and held his spear out, ready, a good honourable Spartan soldier. Alexios could have laughed if he wasn’t so furious but it wasn’t funny, not even slightly, it was sad and stupid and thoughtless. Thaletas was fast and strong, more adept than most, but there wasn’t a chance in Hades he could beat Alexios and he should have known it. Perhaps he did and somehow that was worse.

Alexios gave him a few seconds, it was only fair to let him try. He allowed Thaletas to slice a deep cut into his bicep and then he moved forward, stabbed the blade of his dagger right through the center of Thaletas’ shield and bodily hauled it out of his grip, flinging them both away into the dark. He should have stopped there but he didn’t, couldn’t, Thaletas stumbled and his eyes widened and Alexios seized the sharp end of his spear and wrenched it out of his hands, not caring if it sliced through his fingers, cracking the wooden handle in half over his thigh and dropping it like cinder wood at his feet. Still pressing forward, with one free hand he took hold of Thaletas’ head and swiftly brought it down to meet his knee scything up through the air, connecting with a sick cracking sound. Thaletas whipped backwards and crumpled to the floor on his back like a doll and Alexios was on him in an instant, holding him down, kneeling over him with his spear pressed to the soft flesh at the base of his throat.

Their breaths were loud and ragged and Thaletas was dazed, blood slipping sideways from his nose across his face and into his hair. He coughed, spluttered, struggled under Alexios’ utterly immoveable weight. He was panicking, realising finally that it might all be true and that if Alexios wanted to hurt him, there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop it.

‘Have you had enough?’ Alexios hissed, pressing the cold metal of the spear just slightly into Thaletas’ sweat damp skin, watching the blood bloom in a small bubble at the tip. Thaletas scratched at Alexios’ forearms, helpless. ‘Do you feel better now?’

‘No.’ he breathed, eyes wild and dark.

‘ _Thaletas_ ,’ Alexios warned, only distantly aware he was starting to lose command of himself.

‘It’s not finished.’ Thaletas choked, a stuttered, frantic sound. ‘You’re still holding back.’

_Back on Mykonos. Thaletas telling Alexios he loved him but that his heart belonged to Sparta, leaving him there alone on the beach as the sun sunk slowly below the waves._

Something in Alexios almost slipped the spear right through his damned neck right there just to get it over with, if he wanted to die so badly it was something Alexios had already done a thousand times before, what was one more Spartan death on his hands, except of course he couldn’t, not ever – so Alexios leant down and kissed him instead, hard and vaguely viciously, tasting blood and not feeling sorry for it, spear still held to his throat.

Thaletas’ mouth was warm and wet and easy, he let Alexios push his tongue inside and didn’t fight it. His hands reached the neckline of his armor and hooked inwards, pulling Alexios down harder onto him. When Alexios flicked the spear away and dropped it to the earth he nicked the skin and Thaletas whined, flinching in surprise. It wasn’t a pained sound, not even close. It sent heat through Alexios, it made him bite down on Thaletas’ lip just so he could hear it again. Gods, he was fucked.

Alexios broke the kiss to rid himself of his breastplate, pulling buckles undone with enough force to snap them, and let it drop next to the discarded spear. Thaletas’ hands fell on his bared skin, palms all over his chest and shoulders, hauling him closer. It was fast and frantic and painful, necessary. Alexios shoved Thaletas’ tunic roughly up past his hips, bunching it over his chest and wasn’t careful about avoiding Thaletas’ still steadily bleeding nose as he snatched it off over his head and pressed their mouths together again. The bastard deserved it.

He skated his feet back, pine needles scratching at his skin, and moved to kneel in between Thaletas’ thighs instead of over them. His legs fell wide open and Alexios took up the space, pushing his hardening cock up against Thaletas’. He could feel the heat of him through his underwear. There was too much clothing and the leather of his belt was in his way and _fuck_ he wished he’d taken care of it all before finding the perfect gliding friction, rutting his hips against Thaletas’ waiting body.

‘Take it off.’ Thaletas panted, tugging at the straps of Alexios’ belt. ‘Quickly.’

‘Shut up,’ Alexios thrust against him, absolutely refusing to do as he was told, but also hurrying to release the clasps and shed the fucking thing as fast as possible. It landed in a heap next to his other possessions, spear clanking in protest. Alexios had no Spartan honour left in him and though Leonidas was probably rolling in his grave somewhere, Alexios was happy to leave his weapons in the dirt when Thaletas was beneath him, bleeding, helpless and begging to be fucked.

And he really was begging, his hands clawing at Alexios’ bare thighs, leaving red lines in the tanned skin, a bloom of heat flushing his chest.

‘Don’t stop.’

Alexios tore at his underwear, ripping the fabric right open and got a hand on his cock, hard and hot in his palm. He stroked slowly, the way he liked it for himself, and Thaletas writhed under him, a stuttered groan pushing its way out of his open mouth. ‘Fuck, _yes_ , gods-’

Alexios was so hard it almost hurt. He needed to fuck something.

He sat up, watching the muscles in Thaletas’ shoulders and neck and thighs flexing as he stroked, and Thaletas dug his fingertips into the earth, eyes hazy and locked on Alexios.

‘Tell me.’ Alexios murmured, hearing the heat in his own voice as if it belonged to someone else.

‘I want you. Please.’

So Alexios spat on his fingers and without more warning pushed two inside Thaletas, slow and almost tender but without stopping, right to the knuckle. Thaletas groaned, chewed his own lip as if that would help to stifle the sound. Alexios leaned down again and kissed him, drawing his fingers out and pressing them back in, all insistent shoves of his tongue and fluid thrusts of his wrist, and if Thaletas wanted to know what it was like to fuck a demigod then Alexios was going to show him.

He fell apart right there, lost the ability to speak and even breathe for seconds at a time as Alexios fucked him with his fingers, first two and then three, opening him up and not being gentle about it. He almost came just like that but Alexios didn’t let him, kept him breathless and dizzy on the edge, made him wait. Alexios’ dick was throbbing and his stomach was tight and his skin was dewy from the heat of them both and he was going to lose his mind-

He fumbled one-handed at his own underwear, tugging the knot undone. When his neglected dick was finally free, he pulled his fingers away and out of Thaletas, got a solidly sordid moan for his efforts, and started to stroke himself. He sunk back onto his heels and took a second to enjoy both the pleasure of his own hand and the look on Thaletas’ face, a hungry, slightly apprehensive expression.

He spat again into his palm and slicked his cock. Didn’t ask for permission before shifting closer and sinking it into Thaletas’ ass in one deep, slow shove, and Thaletas went rigid and still beneath him, head tilting back against the ground, mouth open.

‘ _Gods, Alexios_.’ He moaned, hands clenching slowly at his sides, absent and animalistic.

Alexios savoured the tight heat on his cock and watched Thaletas struggle for air, for words, for anything, his body impaled on it.

He waited a few merciful seconds and then spat again, right on the base of his dick this time where it was buried in Thaletas, to make sure he was wet enough, and because he couldn’t stay still for much longer, and then he started to move.

He fucked Thaletas hard without breaking rhythm, selfishly, savagely and definitely not holding back. If it hurt then Thaletas didn’t show it or say it, Alexios gripped vice-like onto his hips, thumbs pressing against hipbones, and solidly pounded into him. It almost felt like making up for lost time, Alexios wanted to make him feel all the things he could have had and all the things he’d taken away. He wanted to fuck the past out of him, fuck all the secrets and mistakes and tender memories right out of his body, fuck him until he forgot his own name.

He didn’t usually do this. He knew sex was more than putting his cock in someone and using them until he was finished, but this was an exception.

Thaletas wasn’t even moaning anymore, his breath was just forced out of him in shallow, quick gasps and his face was slack, staring almost vacantly at Alexios as if he barely recognised him but couldn’t form enough thought to do anything about it. Alexios didn’t let up, probably couldn’t even if he’d wanted to, and the thought had crossed his mind to just stop and stand up and leave, and that would be a lesson on leaving people in the lurch, but he started this and he intended to finish it, so instead he just pulled Thaletas down hard onto him with every thrust, fast and deep, and carried on fucking.

Thaletas’ brows knitted together and he was mouthing something Alexios couldn’t hear, tightening up around his cock, eyes sliding closed and Alexios reached down and smacked him, quick and sharp and startling on the cheek. ‘Look at me when I make you come.’

He exhaled hard, blinking. His skin was flushed but his eyes were focused back on Alexios.

Alexios lifted him, angled his hips up and hooked one of Thaletas’ trembling calves over his arm, whole body so willing and pliant under his control. His cock sunk impossibly deeper and Thaletas whined, a noise that grew sharply louder, and he looked straight at Alexios and clawed at nothing as he came, helpless, covering himself and kicking his free foot out in the dirt.

‘ _Fuck_ -’ It was almost a sob and the strangled sound of it went through Alexios like a bolt, his spine twitched and his stomach clenched and his breath caught in his throat. Before he could say anything he bit back a moan far louder and more desperate than he wanted and he came inside Thaletas with hard, shuddering thrusts.

‘ _Shit_ -’ Alexios breathed, hips stuttering, fingers clenching as he rode it out. ‘ _Shit.._.’

His eyes must have rolled a little, it was lasting so long, Thaletas was so hot and wet and full –

‘ _Gods - fuck_ -’

He fell forward, one arm braced on the ground, still riding the waves of it.

His hips slowly stilled, and when it was over his arm gave out completely and he let himself collapse against Thaletas’ heaving chest, face buried in his neck.

Stubble scratched at his temple. Thaletas squeezed his waist lightly with shaking thighs, and Alexios thought he might have felt a wary hand brush against his hair, but it was too slight to be sure. Alexios was still inside him, still hard, and he’d be dreaming about this for months.

They caught their breath together and Alexios finally found the strength to push himself onto his side. He rolled onto his back in the leaves.

Just the sounds of their breathing, slowly growing quieter and more controlled as they became themselves again.

*

Thaletas’ head rested on Alexios’ still bare chest. A fire crackled at their feet, sending sparks up into the navy sky.

‘Did I really break your heart?’

‘Yes.’ Alexios replied. His throat felt sore, like he’d been shouting. He wanted wine. ‘I think so.’

‘I’m so sorry, Alexios. Truly. If I could do it all over again, I...’

‘It’s okay. I understand.’ It wasn’t, and he didn’t, and he knew Thaletas would always choose Sparta because it was in his blood, but he was sated and tired and for the moment that was enough.

Thaletas followed a scar on Alexios’ stomach with his fingertip. ‘Those were some of the best days of my life. Fighting alongside you.’ Alexios twisted to look down at him. ‘We made a good team.’ He continued, staring into the flames now but not seeing them.

‘We did.’ Alexios linked an arm around his shoulders and drew him close. In the quiet, peaceful aftermath Alexios had started to worry that he might have gone too far. The times they’d fucked before were rough and hot and aggressive, filled with that bone deep kind of lust, the intense feeling of not being close enough. But he never felt guilty afterwards, like he did now.

‘Listen, I’m sorry about your shield. And your nose.’

Thaletas laughed against him, a warm puff of breath over his skin. ‘Don’t worry about that. I deserved it.’

‘Yes, I suppose you did.’

‘Stop worrying Alexios. I can feel your heartbeat in my head.’

‘Did I hurt you?’

Thaletas shifted onto his elbow and looked at him in the warm flickering light. ‘I’ll live.’

Alexios took a breath to say something but Thaletas kissed him instead, a slow, sure press of his lips. ‘Please, stop worrying.’ He murmured against his mouth. ‘You’re not that strong anyway.’

Alexios laughed quietly and kissed him again. It felt like an apology and forgiveness at the same time. ‘The Spartan has a death wish, how unusual.’

Ikaros screeched overhead and Thaletas smiled. There was still dried blood on his face but Alexios thought it suited him, in a soldier to soldier kind of way.

‘We should probably go. It’s almost dawn.’

Alexios found the broken shield with his dagger still embedded up to the hilt in it, a fitting metaphor indeed. They dressed and killed the fire and gathered the horses without speaking. There was a lump in Alexios’ throat and suddenly he didn’t want to leave at all.

‘Gods my knees are weaker than the first time I faced the Athenians.’ Thaletas leant against a tree. He looked tired.

‘Ride back with me. Phobos won’t mind. You can leave in the morning.’

Alexios climbed into the saddle and held out his hand, which was steady. Mostly. ‘Come with me. Just once.’

Thaletas might have been exhausted and come-drunk but even he didn’t miss the implication behind that one, so he took Alexios’ hand and climbed onto Phobos’ back behind him. His arms circled tightly around Alexios’ waist.

The horses picked their way through the trees. Together they rode back into the dark, Thaletas’ head resting on Alexios’ shoulder.

x


End file.
